He was the first player Jimbo Fisher recruited at Florida State, the one he always said he could build a championship team around.

Then NC State happened.

Now Florida State is left with this: EJ Manuel, the one-time five-star, mega quarterback recruit Fisher recruited as coach-in-waiting at FSU, has one last game to bring it all home.

"We put ourselves in this position," Manuel says. "We have no one else to blame but ourselves."

It just doesn't seem fair, really. This group of FSU seniors that brought the program back to national prominence; that persevered through rough times while Fisher pieced together a team worthy of winning it all, now has one goal left this season: winning the ACC.

When you've built to this moment for four years, even another win over rival Florida doesn't cut it. Or does it?

"It's the most important game of my career," defensive end Bjoern Werner said.

And the most important game of Fisher's three seasons in Tallahassee. Winning the ACC for the first time since 2005 will get the 'Noles a nice trophy and a fun postseason in the Orange Bowl.

Fun isn't good enough. Fun doesn't cut it when Florida has won two national titles since the last time FSU meant something in the race for the BCS crystal — more than a decade ago.

Fun doesn't help when winning the ACC means you've won the worst of the big five major conferences. That's why FSU must beat Florida, ranked fourth in the BCS poll, Saturday.

It's more than just a rivalry game; it's a game against a program that recruits the same players FSU does — and a program that is one Notre Dame loss away from playing for a national title for the third time in seven years. Beating Florida and stopping the Gators' momentum under second-year coach Will Muschamp is so critically important on so many levels.

Beating Florida means Florida State will have beaten an elite SEC team, and prevented that team from playing for it all. You know, kind of like the old Florida-Florida State games of the Steve Spurrier and Bobby Bowden years, where losing ruined seasons.

Beating Florida means more for FSU than winning the ACC next week by beating Georgia Tech. Beating Florida means FSU can declare — emphatically and without hesitation — that it truly is part of the nation's elite again.

Beating Florida means this senior class of Manuel and Werner and Nick Williams and Lonnie Pryor and all of those guys who signed on when FSU was in the middle of The Lost Decade, can proclaim they've set Florida State football back on the mantle.

"They brought back the credibility," Fisher said. "This senior class needs to be remembered very well for getting Florida State back in the limelight and making it significant again in college football and in the upper echelon of those conversations."

They're not there yet, Jimbo. Not after NC State. Not after this team built to play for it all, lost on the road to an average NC State team, a game that killed any hope of winning a BCS National Championship.

Losing to Florida on Saturday will only further cloud the issue. Losing to Florida means the season these seniors have pointed to for five years becomes all about winning the ACC Championship.

We've seen this fall just how much respect and national limelight that has brought Clemson.

"We have to finish strong," Manuel said. "We've come too far to not get what we've worked for."